The present invention relates to the production of a design on a flat, arcuate or irregular, non-flat surface. More particularly, the invention relates to method and apparatus for transferring a flat rectangular design onto an image surface, either in a foreshortened circular form on a flat image surface for subsequent formation into an arcuate surface bearing the design in relatively undistorted form, or directly on an arcuate surface.
Multi-colored metal designs have been produced on flat surfaces using conventional photographic masking techniques to allow successive selective etching and/or metal deposition corresponding to each color effected. Such surfaces can then be curved or pressed into a desired shape. However, this procedure is limited by the extent to which an arcuate surface can be formed without excessive distortion of the design, which would usually be in a flat rectangular-coordinate form.
It also has been proposed to transfer a design from a flat transparency directly onto an arcuate surface. However, no prior procedure has accomplished this transference without substantial distortion of the design.
It is known to applicant to produce a design on a flat or arcuate surface by use of a projection technique as in applicant's co-pending application, Ser. No. 757,505, filed Jan. 7, 1977, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Producing a Design on a Flat or Arcuate Surface." That method and apparatus permit production of a design on a surface without distortion and achieve a similar result to that intended herein.
It is also known to applicant to transfer a flat design directly to an arcuate surface by use of a projection and rotation technique, as in applicant's co-pending application, Ser. No. 729,764, filed Oct. 5, 1976, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,102,734, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Producing a Design on an Arcuate Surface." It is further known to applicant to transfer a flat design to a flat surface in foreshortened, polar-coordinate form, and then to form the flat surface into an arcuate surface without any apparent distortion, as in applicant's co-pending application, Ser. No. 733,711, filed Oct. 18, 1976, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,101,373, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Producing a Design on a Flat Surface Adapted to be Formed into an Arcuate Surface." These two methods and apparatus utilize synchronized motion of the object and the image surface. The present method and apparatus is an alternative which does not require special means for synchronization of movement of the transparency and image surface. Applicant's other methods produce a similar result to that intended herein.